A First Sunday in Passiontide to Keep Us Focused on Our Lord

In the traditional calendar, it's the 1st Sunday in Passiontide. Next week will be 2nd Sunday Sunday in Passiontide, also known as Palm Sunday. Statues will be covered now, remaining so until the Easter Vigil when they will be gloriously unveiled to the strains of the Gloria, sung as the bells are wrung. If you've never experienced this, you don't know what you've missed.

Our traditional rite really helped keep us focused on Our Lord in every way possible. The covering of the statues muted the devotions they encouraged. The purpose wasn't to detract from the intercession of the particular saints or Our Blessed Mother. (We know they're there under the purple covering.) But muting or diverting our eye contact can help us to keep Our Lord front and center. After all, His Passion and Death draws near. And the more we can do to help bring the details of what He endured for our sake, the better we can unite ourselves to Him on His Cross.

While we would do well to try to unite ourselves to the Cross throughout the year, it may not be possible to do so that often or that intensely if we're engaged in the duties of our state of life. These can be quite demanding and all-encompassing. Between personal work obligations, most days bring tasks, both planned and unplanned, that can consume us from morning until night.  As laymen who work for a living, we're not expected to reserve the same blocks of time for prayers and pious works as monks, although we ought to do the best we can to isolate moments for Our Lord. 

But as we approach Good Friday, it's important that we make special provisions that will unite us to Our Lord's Passion and Death - at least for this one time of the year.

We can read about His Passion and Death. I've read a number of accounts, some by physicians, describing the agony of the scourging and the Crucifixion. If you've never done this, you might consider it. The film, The Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson graphically exposes the physical - and spiritual - suffering Our Lord endured. 

Maybe you've already learned of the supreme suffering He offered up for us. You might connect His suffering with that which we or others have experienced in this world, this life. Recently my mother-in-law died after years of slow physical and mental deterioration, beginning with symptoms of dementia, culminating with over two years at home in a hospital bed unable to move - literally. This was a vibrant, strong woman, an immigrant from Eastern Europe, who worked hard her entire life. She was reduced to an inert body on a bed, unable to talk, barely able to - occasionally - communicate. Did she suffer? Surely, the mere fact that she was so disabled might have caused at least mental or emotional suffering. We'll never know until we see her again - God willing - in Heaven.

Maybe you're currently suffering some physical, mental, or emotional pain and/or disability. Meditating on Our Lord's own suffering can bring some consolation. It's not that you look upon His broken and bleeding Body and think of your own suffering as less awful (although you might think that). But You have in Him One Who knows exactly what you're enduring, having endured more than any other human being ever did. 

Those covered statues not only help us to focus on His Passion and Death. They provide a sense of deep sobriety. With the statues muted, we can imagine the saints accompanying us in turning towards Our Lord in His suffering. 

Why the custom of covering the statues was eliminated in the newfangled liturgy, I have no idea. It does strike me as a grave error to have done so. For years, I was able to attend - sometimes during the week sometimes on Sunday - Mass at a church that continued the tradition. That ended with our C-Virus Mess. But I do have rich memories of many years. It helps.

Whatever our individual situation, however we manage it, all of us can keep ourselves focused on Our Lord as Passiontide begins. Be with Him throughout the coming two weeks. Stand under the Cross on Good Friday with Our Blessed Mother and St. John, faithful to the last. We may have fled like most of his apostles on that fateful day. But now, with the benefit of time and distance from that actual Crucifixion, let's not allow ourselves to be drawn away or even distracted. Instead, let Passiontide draw us in, ever closer to Him.

We adore Thee O Christ and we bless Thee. Because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.